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When I first got married I told my husband we would have house rules, and those rules would be based on circumstances such as job situations.  I believe housework should be a shared responsibility, especially if both partners have full time jobs.

When I became self employed I changed those rules some.  Since we don’t have any kids, I’m home all day, and I only work 3-4 hours a day total, I believe it should be my responsibility to keep the house clean, do the laundry, etc…for the most part.

I also believe my husband is a grown man, and he should respect me and our house enough to put his dishes in the sink, his dirty laundry in the clothes hamper, and his trash in the garbage can.  Does that mean he does this?  Not at all!

He has completely slacked here lately.  I walk through the house and find his dirty clothes laying wherever he disguarded them.  There might be a couple dirty shirts in his “office”, jeans and boxers in the bedroom, and socks wherever he feels like taking off his shoes.

I walk into my living room and find a pile of candy wrappers, take out boxes, and just random trash piled up on top of my coffee table.  His desk is covered with dirty dishes, including a plate that had pizza on it from 2 days ago.  It’s gross!

I fully believe it’s my responsibility to take care of the house, but he has to do his part.  His mom didn’t let him act like a slob in her house, and in the last 6 years I haven’t let him act like it either.  So why is he doing it now?

My new ground rules?

Pick up your shit!

But that’s not where it ends.  As long as he wants to do this he can do his own laundry, too.  I’m tired of him telling me at midnight that he doesn’t have clean clothes for work tomorrow because he’s been leaving his work jeans in the back of the truck and changing into shorts before he leaves the job site. I appreciate the fact that he doesn’t want to get dirt all over the seats in my Blazer, but bring your damn clothes inside, and don’t wait until midnight to tell me you need them washed!

You don’t know how close I came to telling him he was going to have to just wear dirty jeans to work tomorrow, but that would mean getting my seats dirty in the Blazer.

Today I realized how much things really have changed since I was a student. My friend stopped by to see me on the way to pick her son up from school. We were sitting on the porch talking, and I happened to glance at the time on my cell phone. I mentioned that it was already 3pm, so she might want to get going. School gets out at 3:10 here.

She said no, her son would call her when traffic started to die down some, and she would pick him up then. That’s their routine, so she doesn’t end up stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, and he gets to hang out a few extra minutes with his friends. He’s in middle school so it’s “the thing to do”.

That reminded me of how much things have changed in the last 8 years. If I had a cell phone in school, it would have resulted in a 2 week suspension. We were only allowed to have our cell phones if our parents wanted us to have them after school for safety reasons while driving home or if we would need them after school for another reason.

Either way our parents had to send a letter to the school acknowledging the fact that their child did have a cell phone, and it would have to be left turned off in a locked car or turned into the office at the beginning of the school day.

Now the kids walk around with them in their backpacks like it’s nothing. My sister in law is 12, and she’s had one for about a year now. If she’s sick, she goes to the bathroom at school and calls her mom to tell her she’s headed to the office to go home. If she forgets something, she calls her mom and has it brought to her.

She often calls me from the school bus because they’re running a double route, and she’s bored. At least she’s got a way to call her mom to let he know she’ll be home almost 2 hours late. The school district stopped leaving recordings on their answering machine letting the parents know.

I’m a big Mario Bros fan, but then why shouldn’t I be? I’m an 80’s baby, and I grew up on Nintendo. I think that’s why I absolutely love to see videos like this. Of course this guy definitely had way too much time on his hands, but I have too much time on my hands some days, and I can’t come up with anything cool like this! Bummer!

Mario Theme Played with RC Car and Bottles - Watch more free videos

Good morning everyone!  I hope everyone is having a wonderful Sunday morning.  I’m just a little too cheery this morning.  I found myself wide awake at 4am, and I don’t know why.  That’s 3 mornings in a row now I’ve been awake before 5am with no rhyme or reason.

Anywho, what is everyone up to today?

I’m using today to catch up on my reading.  I’ve noticed I’ve been really slack lately, and I’ve got a huge stack of new books sitting here ready to be flipped open.  I decided I’m going to start devoting a few hours each Sunday to reading before I end up neglecting my passion for books even more.

So this morning I started a book I received yesterday from Paperbackswap.com.  The book is Hot Stuff by Elaine Fox, and even though I’m only already caught up in it.

I read the first 8 chapters this morning, but now I’m going to take a break.  I hear a chicken biscuit calling my name, so I feel a trip to Hardees is in order!